Related Stories

Australia will hold the world's first trial of a new contraceptive, the morning before pill, later this year but the Australian creators say the pill will probably be developed offshore, possibly in Europe.

The pill was announced this week by its creators at Monash University. It works by stopping sperm from reaching the egg. The results of the first trials will be published in the next edition of the British Journal of Family Planning.

Monash University's Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Professor David Healy predicts that the next stage of development will happen overseas. "It would be really good if Australia had a large pharmaceutical company," he said. "We have one very small company, yet the Swiss have three large companies."

Dr Healy said the one-off pill worked by making cervical mucus inhospitable to sperm, "it changes the ion content and the mucus becomes more viscid, making a physical barrier", says Healy. He said the pill worked within one hour of taking it, and the contraceptive effect lasts for 36 hours.

There are ethical dilemmas involved in the next stage of the research. Participants in a trial of the pill may risk falling pregnant, Professor Healy said. He explained that the contraceptive effect at this stage was unproved, as it had only been trialed in mucus donated by women who were not having sex.

Any volunteers in the next trial would need to be prepared to fall pregnant while taking the drug.

The idea behind the morning-before pill came from in-vitro fertilisation expert and Family Planning Association president Gab Kovacs. The formulation is based on the already available mini-pill. This pill contains progestogen, which prevents fertilisation by stopping sperm reaching the egg.

Researchers said the pill would best suit women or couples who had infrequent sex, but expected to have sex in the next day or two. The method could be seen as more morally acceptable than an abortion pill or proceedure, because it prevented conception, rather than destroying a fertilised egg.